In the DAILY E-NEWS from rismedia.com, they highlighted a demographic survey about online home shopping as the top story. The survey sponsor, Obeo, is a company specializing in services like virtual tours to enable consumers to take "psychological ownership" of the real estate they view online. They sponsored a survey in January of this year to determine the online home shopping behavior and preferences of different demographic groups.
Among the interesting findings, more women (41%) than men (25%) begin their home search online. The sponsors particularly wanted to profile preferences by gender. The study also confirms NAR's earlier findings - as many surveys do - about the Internet as a first step for most home shoppers. It also showed that this behavior is consistent across all age, economic and ethnic breakdowns. As the article's author Glade Jones says, the times they are a'changin'.
Real estate agents turned up as the #2 most useful source of information. As this table shows, 22.16% had
that experience. The least useful source of info was reading home ads in newspapers (4.55%), which is not really a surprise, followed by "Driving through desired neighborhoods" (10.04%), which is a little unexpected. Only 6.25% listed "Went to open houses" as the most useful source.
To get a broader picture of their interests in particular categories that are a typical part of the online listing, go to the article and download the survey. There's always more to know!
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